12:44-50 Our Lord publicly proclaimed, that every one who believed on him, as his true disciple, did not believe on him only, but on the Father who sent him. Beholding in Jesus the glory of the Father, we learn to obey, love, and trust in him. By daily looking to Him, who came a Light into the world, we are more and more freed from the darkness of ignorance, error, sin, and misery; we learn that the command of God our Saviour is everlasting life. But the same word will seal the condemnation of all who despise it, or neglect it.

Verses 49, 50. - There is much emphasis to be laid upon the ὅτι, which implies that our Lord would give a sacred reason for the tremendous power with which his λόγος would be invested. The λόγος, the ῤήμα, is not simply his; it did not proceed from himself only, from his humanity, or even his Divine Sonship alone, but from the Father which sent me. He stood and spake always as the Voice of the Eternal One, from whom he came, with saving powers. He has given me commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. The two words εϊπω and λαλήσω (dicam and loquar, Vulgate), though Hengstenberg says it is frivolous to distinguish, are supposed by Meyer, Westcott, and Godet, to discriminate matter and form, as Godet says, "What I should say, and how I should say it." My words and their manner and opportunity and tone are all of them the outcome of the Father's ἐντολὴ. It certainly is incredible that John could have put these words into the lips of Jesus. They are no mere summary. They are set down with awful sincerity as having burned themselves into his memory. But the Lord added, "I may be rejected and my words spurned, and yet they may go on as apparitors of judgment, but however that may be, and I know (οϊδα) that his commandment, his commission to me, is life eternal - is so now" (cf. John 3:36; John 17:3; 1 John 5:12, 13). "The Law is ordained unto life," said Paul, and "the goodness of God leadeth us unto repentance." The depth of this sublime experience goes down and back into the eternal counsels. The things which therefore I speak (am speaking even at this moment), even as the Father has said unto me, so I speak. "In rejecting me and my words, men reject and insult the Father. His word they dare to renounce, as solemn and unalterable as the word spoken on Sinai. They not only reject me, but they count themselves unworthy of eternal life. They not only spurn Law, but love." Thus, at the conclusion of the public ministry, the evangelist sets forth, in a few burning words, the theme of the prologue, so far as it is realized in the offer of a full revelation of the Logos to the world in human flesh. This Logos found adequate utterance through the human life and lips of Jesus. "The Father has been so amply revealed that the non-believer and rejecter, who hears and does not keep my sayings, is disbelieving and rejecting Hill." These potent words, and this wonderful conclusion of the entire record of the public ministry of Jesus, is the appropriate summary of teachings which were now brought to a dose. Without any exact parallels, they breathe the spirit of the whole teaching, they supply the basis of the prologue. It is, however, dear that the style is different from the prologue, and from the reflection of the evangelist in previous verses. Just as the whole Gospel is a series of recollections which form from their own intrinsic glory and truth a sacred inimitable whole, so this spicilegium is a brief evangelium in evangelio - a gathering up of the whole in the narrow compass of a few precious lines. Though "the hour" has come, it waits. The comparison between this method of the evangelist and that of the apocalyptist is very impressive.

For I have not spoken of myself,.... As man, or as separate from his Father; his doctrine was not human, but divine, and therefore a rejection of it cannot escape notice at the future judgment:

but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; Christ, as man, had his mission, and commission, and his instructions from his Father to preach the Gospel unto men; he was anointed for it by the Holy Ghost; he was enjoined the preaching of it by his Father, and the several doctrines he published were delivered him by him; see John 8:28.

Some Believe in Jesus…48"He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. 49"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.50"I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."

Cross References

Deuteronomy 18:18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.

John 3:11Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

John 5:19Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

John 6:68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 7:16Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.

John 8:26"I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world."

John 8:28So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

John 14:10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

John 14:24Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

John 14:31but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. "Come now; let us leave.

John 17:8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

Treasury of Scripture

For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.